[PGT] San Jose Sharks at Vancouver Canucks | Mar. 23, 2023

[Kootenay Gold]

2 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:

Kuz, Hronek and maybe Mikhayev may be the tools of a ‘retool’. 
 

The other one is Silovs. 
 

He can play plenty of games next year to take the burden off of Demko. 
 

Wolanin, and Breezer give the Defense plenty of depth options as well. 
 

The biggest thing is that Tik Tocchet has shown to be a very capable coach, alongside Foote and Gonchar. All 3 of them have made a mark so far in changing the culture and style of the team’s game and mindset. 
 

I was very critical of Tik Tocc. Despite his lack of wordsmith, he’s a capable and influential coach. That means more than one player or a handful doing things right. 
 

I fully disagree with my former opinion about Tocchet. He’s a coach that I can get behind fully. Old school guy who knows how to make players play the ‘right’ way. 

I shared that opinion of him as well when he was hired but he has really changed my mind.

[Angry Goose]

2 hours ago, spook007 said:

Dance is a c...

 

What was it he said... this is Tocchet hockey... they been winning ever since. wtf does he want?

One thing is for certain, he'll be riding Tocchets d... like everyone else should this team actually become successful. Opportunist drivel from him...

What annoys me even more is his compadre Jaimie Dodd.  Thomas Drance’s screeching I can handle in doses but Dodd, no way.

 

[hockeyfan-observer]

An excellent performance last night vs SJ as was nice to see some contributions from other lines.  

 

As the season winds down now, I am wondering about their focus now as the playoff line has all but gone - even with the win streak the past few weeks, still 16-18 points back of the playoff bar. - which proves exactly the same fact as last year - you must start positive hockey in November and cannot start chasing in January / February - too many teams ahead of them plus 3 point games between the teams you are trying to catch moderates any streak you can go on.  

 

Its a shame because I would have liked to see JT in the playoffs - beast of a player when he is on - not so when he is off.  I guess with the remaining games especially those next week - audition some other prospects from the farm.- like Klimovich and even Hoglander to see how they fare in terms of chances for next year.  Maybe the question now when they sit down, is this team a top 8 in the Western Conference and ready to seriously compete or more position 9-12 where need to make more moves in the off-season.

[Sell.the.team]

2 hours ago, Sharpshooter said:

Kuz, Hronek and maybe Mikhayev may be the tools of a ‘retool’. 
 

The other one is Silovs. 
 

He can play plenty of games next year to take the burden off of Demko. 
 

Wolanin, and Breezer give the Defense plenty of depth options as well. 
 

The biggest thing is that Tik Tocchet has shown to be a very capable coach, alongside Foote and Gonchar. All 3 of them have made a mark so far in changing the culture and style of the team’s game and mindset. 
 

I was very critical of Tik Tocc. Despite his lack of wordsmith, he’s a capable and influential coach. That means more than one player or a handful doing things right. 
 

I fully disagree with my former opinion about Tocchet. He’s a coach that I can get behind fully. Old school guy who knows how to make players play the ‘right’ way. 

Im sort of there with you but I need to see some success next season before being fully converted.  Things do seem to be trending upwards this last little while.  However, after the whole Bruce situation nothing would really surprise me.

[Sharpshooter]

21 minutes ago, Sell.the.team said:

Im sort of there with you but I need to see some success next season before being fully converted.  Things do seem to be trending upwards this last little while.  However, after the whole Bruce situation nothing would really surprise me.

Agree. The proof is in next year’s pudding. 
 

With the emphasis on off season training by Tocchet, and oversight by him and his staff, I expect a much better conditioned team. 
 

Hopefully, this is the push the team needs entering the next season. 

[Canuck You]

[sassbs]

Can someone tell me how did the new guy play?  Rather than going through all the messages?

[Dr. Crossbar]

3 hours ago, iceman64 said:

Anyway speaking of Kuzmenko ...

He's the sh** ... fo shizzle Kuznizzle

[88Canuck]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

He's the sh** ... fo shizzle Kuznizzle

[Dr. Crossbar]

7 minutes ago, sassbs said:

Can someone tell me how did the new guy play?  Rather than going through all the messages?

He Hrocked it!

[Ted Lasso]

7 minutes ago, sassbs said:

Can someone tell me how did the new guy play?  Rather than going through all the messages?

Effortless skater, sharp accurate passes. High IQ / anticipation. 

[Ted Lasso]

We lost Wolanin after his first shift, so d pairs were in a blender all night

[Alienhuggyflow]

23 hours ago, Canuckfanforlife82 said:

But not good enough to make the playoffs. Guess we all have to get over that too.

I mean there isn't a team in the league that would be in a playoff spot. Simply look at our record now that we are getting proper goaltending, how are people not seeing this? Until last week we were 0-24 scoring under 3 goals. There's a stat that compares a team's record with league average goaltending,  it's behind a pay wall so I haven't looked since my subscription ran out in early Feb and at that time with league average goaltending we would have had 11 more wins. Putting us comfortably in a spot right now.

Now for transparency during that stretch we were scoring a ton and not playing great system wise, so with league average the games are probably still high scoring.

Under TG and Bruce we stole a lot of wins now under Tochett we really only need average goaltending.

We still score at a good clip but we are making life much easier for the goalies.

The game against the stars (Demkos first game back) was a good example  of life under Bruce, high event, lots of breakdowns and we didn't deserve the win. We got none of those games through the first 50-60 games.  We certainly didn't get a game like the one against the kings.

Those are examples of Demko stealing wins, looking at most games under Tochett we didn't need bubble Demko,  we simply needed him to not actively cost us games and that's happened. We are almost always out-shooting and out-working teams despite a depleted roster. 

 

For me last year we won in spite of glaring issues with coaching and systems but we didn't care, we all loved Bruce. Case in point was the backlash against management for calling him out and ripping his systems to shreds, turns out they were right.

 

Playoff teams win with low event hockey but also have stars that can steal games or take them over, under Tochett that is exactly how we are playing and on off nights, a guy like Demko, JT EP etc can singlehandedly win us games.

 

Casual fans might not notice or care about systems and work ethic etc but it's those things that have us now starting on time, actually killing penalties and having forwards stay in the dzone offering a an option for the d to get it out, instead of turning it over or icing it.

So ya, unless this group stops playing the right way or Demko gets the yips again,  I think we are easily a playoff team next season.

And that's without factoring in the moves Alvin will make to improve the D after creating some cap space, nor does it count the fact we could very well land one of those elite prospects in the 1-6 range. Leo,  or  Fantilli, would solve the 3c issue and be a nice prize if we don't get the chance at Bedard or Matvei

 

[Ted Lasso]

34 minutes ago, Alienhuggyflow said:

I mean there isn't a team in the league that would be in a playoff spot. Simply look at our record now that we are getting proper goaltending, how are people not seeing this? Until last week we were 0-24 scoring under 3 goals. There's a stat that compares a team's record with league average goaltending,  it's behind a pay wall so I haven't looked since my subscription ran out in early Feb and at that time with league average goaltending we would have had 11 more wins. Putting us comfortably in a spot right now.

Now for transparency during that stretch we were scoring a ton and not playing great system wise, so with league average the games are probably still high scoring.

Under TG and Bruce we stole a lot of wins now under Tochett we really only need average goaltending.

We still score at a good clip but we are making life much easier for the goalies.

The game against the stars (Demkos first game back) was a good example  of life under Bruce, high event, lots of breakdowns and we didn't deserve the win. We got none of those games through the first 50-60 games.  We certainly didn't get a game like the one against the kings.

Those are examples of Demko stealing wins, looking at most games under Tochett we didn't need bubble Demko,  we simply needed him to not actively cost us games and that's happened. We are almost always out-shooting and out-working teams despite a depleted roster. 

 

For me last year we won in spite of glaring issues with coaching and systems but we didn't care, we all loved Bruce. Case in point was the backlash against management for calling him out and ripping his systems to shreds, turns out they were right.

 

Playoff teams win with low event hockey but also have stars that can steal games or take them over, under Tochett that is exactly how we are playing and on off nights, a guy like Demko, JT EP etc can singlehandedly win us games.

 

Casual fans might not notice or care about systems and work ethic etc but it's those things that have us now starting on time, actually killing penalties and having forwards stay in the dzone offering a an option for the d to get it out, instead of turning it over or icing it.

So ya, unless this group stops playing the right way or Demko gets the yips again,  I think we are easily a playoff team next season.

And that's without factoring in the moves Alvin will make to improve the D after creating some cap space, nor does it count the fact we could very well land one of those elite prospects in the 1-6 range. Leo,  or  Fantilli, would solve the 3c issue and be a nice prize if we don't get the chance at Bedard or Matvei

 

Great post

[Googlie]

1 hour ago, sassbs said:

Can someone tell me how did the new guy play?  Rather than going through all the messages?

Shares one trait with Huggy Bear .... his stretch passes are mini slapshots.

 

And exact opposite of Myers - instant decision making, puck on his stick and gone, not like our giraffe (fishing around his skates to find it, then dithering for 3 seconds looking for someone to pass to, then serving up a pizza)

 

Very impressive debut

[Canuckfanforlife82]

59 minutes ago, Kenny Powers said:

Effortless skater, sharp accurate passes. High IQ / anticipation. 

I just loved how calm he looked with the puck. If they get one more good one in their prime I could see them continuing to turn things around. Preferably one with a little toughness in front if the net who is big, those are hard to come by though. 

[iceman64]

15 hours ago, nergish said:

Basically the defenseman we've been missing for years...

Didn't get to see his big slapshot, but he threw a few sneaky wristers on net, and had some crisp break-out passes.

 

Guy is just strong on his skates, plays with intensity, and has actual defensive awareness. Not a big bruiser, but still has decent size to get it done. 

Extremely confident with the puck - casual body language while carrying it up the ice, even threw out some head-fakes and seemed eager to dish out no-look passes.

 

Easily our best defender behind Hughes already.

Well good! Yeah I don't think there's enough emphasis on what we lost as a team with losing LB, a great guy was bad enough to lose but his coolness and confidence was fun to watch and stick handling like he was in a phone booth with ease but Hronek from what you just said, sounds the same. 

LB and Hughes-like players are not easy to find.. they make it look easy for a reason. 

Yeah we miss that, right now Kuz/Hughes is our best example for that right now. Both aren't afraid to try moves they pull off easily and seldom miss.. 

 Hronek can fight "ok" from what I saw on YouTube highlights,  which is surprising but welcomed so he can stand up for himself.

[nergish]

10 hours ago, iceman64 said:

Well good! Yeah I don't think there's enough emphasis on what we lost as a team with losing LB, a great guy was bad enough to lose but his coolness and confidence was fun to watch and stick handling like he was in a phone booth with ease but Hronek from what you just said, sounds the same. 

LB and Hughes-like players are not easy to find.. they make it look easy for a reason. 

Yeah we miss that, right now Kuz/Hughes is our best example for that right now. Both aren't afraid to try moves they pull off easily and seldom miss.. 

 Hronek can fight "ok" from what I saw on YouTube highlights,  which is surprising but welcomed so he can stand up for himself.

I’m wracking my brain here… are you talking about Luc Bourdon?

[sassbs]

11 hours ago, Googlie said:

Shares one trait with Huggy Bear .... his stretch passes are mini slapshots.

 

And exact opposite of Myers - instant decision making, puck on his stick and gone, not like our giraffe (fishing around his skates to find it, then dithering for 3 seconds looking for someone to pass to, then serving up a pizza)

 

Very impressive debut

Not to mention the fact he’s been injured and off for awhile!   

[RU SERIOUS]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:26 PM, 4petesake said:

Are you sure those odds are right? Didn’t we only get as low as 6th or was it 5th? Anyway even at 5th Tankathon has the odds of picking first at 8.5% and has us sitting at 6%. Is this wrong? 
 

It looks like we’ve only dropped 2.5%

 

 

Yes I'm sure,   the odds change slightly depending on remaining games for each team above or below you.   The only time they are cast in stone with acertainty is at seasons end.